A proposed honorary street sign could act as a beacon of the work that's been done in the city and a reminder of what's still happening today.
Virginia Sutherland and Melanie Verreault talked to Timmins council last night (Oct. 3) about honorarily naming the intersection at Vipond Road and Moneta Avenue as Bernadette Sutherland Way. Bernadette was Sutherland's mom.
The proposal has already been presented to the city's Indigenous Advisory Committee, which has sent a letter of support. The ask of the city is to approve the honorary street name, provide funding to offset the cost of the sign and unveiling ceremony, and create an honorary street naming bylaw.
The goal would be to unveil it on May 5, which is Red Dress Day, a day to honour missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and two-spirit people (MMIWG2S+).
In the summer of 1989, Bernadette's body was found in the bushes near the intersection. It's in an area that has recently started to be developed to allow for a tractor-trailer fleet parking lot.
Bernadette, who was 42 when she was killed, was originally from Fort Albany.
"She left my community because she left domestic violence. She came to Timmins in hopes to find a home, security, safety. But that didn’t happen,” said Sutherland.
Through the years, Sutherland said her sister, Lillian, has gone to the site.
"She used to go there and offer her tobacco, a prayer in that area. She hasn’t gone there just because there’s some development happening there, but it’s always in her mind to go back there. This is where her spirit was at when she was last here so that’s why this project means a lot to me and to my family,” said Sutherland.
By honorarily naming the street, Verreault, Trimedia Consulting president, says the city has the opportunity to be a leader in Canada.
In 2019, the report Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into MMIWG2S+ was released and included 231 calls for justice.
Forty of those calls for justice are focused on municipalities.
“The reason why we’re bringing it here today is really to focus on municipality-based and the accountability and responsibility there to really start that dialogue and commence action on those 40 calls for justice. And I really think that our community has this opportunity to be a lead across this country when it comes to something like this ... the file hasn’t been very active on a national scale,” she said.
While no decisions were made on Tuesday, council members were supportive of the project.
Coun. Cory Robin said he relates to many things in Sutherland's story; his mother lives in Schumacher and his family is from Fort Albany.
The honorary street sign, he said, is a chance for people to drive down the street and ask, 'Why is that there?'
"And it might be an uncomfortable answer for you, depending on where you sit on the spectrum. Because there are a lot of people in the town who are still racist and it happens quite often,” said Robin.
“We’ve come a long way as a city and as organizations in our city to stem the flow of racism, to denormalize things that were normal in the ‘70s and ‘80s, but there’s still things that are happening now."
Coun. Andrew Marks is also supportive of the sign and said he'd support a city bylaw to work towards it.
“Any opportunity I have as a councillor to help educate — make awareness and bring awareness, is a good thing for our community and our society,” he said.
For Mayor Michelle Boileau, Sutherland's public presentation has been months in the making.
Back in the winter when Boileau was in Fort Albany and Sutherland was attending a family member's funeral, their paths crossed and they talked about the initiative.
“I truly believe the stars aligned when we met in Fort Albany back in March and regardless of how things turn out following this presentation, the work that’s been done so far is important work, valuable work,” she said.
Because there's no city bylaw for these types of requests, the cost is not known at this time.
Through Verreault's research of what's been done in other municipalities, she expects the request and application fees to be about $200 and the sign to be about $300.
Being an honorary sign, it would not affect the official name of the street.
